Steven M. Rales (born March 31, 1951) is an American businessman and film producer. He founded

Danaher Corporation Danaher Corporation is an American global conglomerate founded in 1984 by brothers Steven and Mitchell Rales. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the company designs, manufactures, and markets medical, industrial, and commercial products and ...

with his brother

Mitchell Rales Mitchell P. Rales (born August 1956) is an American businessman and art curator. He co-founded Danaher Corporation with his brother Steven Rales in 1984 and the art museum Glenstone with his wife Emily Wei in 2006. Rales is also the chairman of ...

in 1984 and is its chairman. Rales also founded the film production company Indian Paintbrush in 2006, which works closely with filmmaker

Wes Anderson Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. Wes Anderson filmography, His films are known for themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Due to his films' eccentricity, distinctive visual and narrative ...

. His work with Anderson has resulted in three

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

nominations, winning

Best Live Action Short Film The Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film is an award presented at the annual Academy Awards ceremony. The award has existed, under numerous names, since 1957. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate awards, ''Best Short Subject, On ...

for ''

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar ''The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More'' is a 1977 short story collection by British author Roald Dahl. The seven stories are generally regarded as being aimed at a slightly older audience than many of Dahl's other children's novels ...

'' (2023). Rales also owns the media distribution companies

Janus Films Janus Films is an American film distribution company. The distributor is credited with introducing numerous films, now considered masterpieces of world cinema, to American audiences, including the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, Sergei Eisenstein ...

and

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...

and holds a 20% stake in the

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA). His

net worth Net worth is the value of all the non-financial and financial assets owned by an individual or institution minus the value of all its outstanding liabilities. Financial assets minus outstanding liabilities equal net financial assets, so net w ...

was estimated by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' in 2024 to be $8.9 billion.

Early life

Raised in a Jewish family, Rales is one of four sons of Ruth (née Abramson) and Norman Rales. His father was raised in the

Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York The Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York (HOA) was a Jewish orphanage in New York City. It was founded in 1860 by the Hebrew Benevolent Society. It closed in 1941, after pedagogical research concluded that children thrive better in foster care or ...

and later became a businessman in Washington, D.C. credited for enacting the first

employee stock ownership plan Employee stock ownership, or employee share ownership, is where a company's employees own shares in that company (or in the parent company of a group of companies). US employees typically acquire shares through a share option plan. In the UK, Emp ...

transaction in U.S. history. His father was also a philanthropist, founding the Norman and Ruth Rales Foundation and the Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service. In 1969, Rales graduated from Walt Whitman High School in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region ...

. In 1973, he graduated from

DePauw University DePauw University ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Greencastle, Indiana, United States. It was founded in 1837 as Indiana Asbury College and changed its name to DePauw University in 1884. The college has a Methodist heritage and was ...

, where he was in the

Beta Theta Pi Beta Theta Pi (), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social Fraternities and sororities in North America, fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, , it consist ...

fraternity A fraternity (; whence, "wikt:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular ...

. In 1978, he earned a juris doctor (JD) degree from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

Career

In 1979, he left his father's real estate firm to found Equity Group Holdings with his brother

. Using

junk bonds In finance, a high-yield bond (non-investment-grade bond, speculative-grade bond, or junk bond) is a bond that is rated below investment grade by credit rating agencies. These bonds have a higher risk of default or other adverse credit even ...

, they bought a diversified line of businesses. They changed the name to Diversified Mortgage Investors in 1978 and to Danaher in 1984, with him serving as its chairman since then. In 1985, they bought

Easco Corporation Easco Hand Tools was an American manufacturer of hand tools. It is best known for being the main supplier of mechanic's tools for the Craftsman brand. Its tools were also sold under the Allen and ''KD Tools'' brands after its acquisition by Danah ...

, the then-largest independent aluminum extrusion manufacturer and hand tool manufacturer which produced the Craftsman brand of sockets and wrenches for Sears. In 1988, they made a hostile takeover bid for Interco, a conglomerate comprising manufacturers as diverse as

Converse Converse may refer to: Mathematics and logic * Converse (logic), the result of reversing the two parts of a definite or implicational statement ** Converse implication, the converse of a material implication ** Converse nonimplication, a logical c ...

shoes and

Ethan Allen Ethan Allen ( – February 12, 1789) was an American farmer, writer, military officer and politician. He is best known as one of the founders of Vermont and for the capture of Fort Ticonderoga during the American Revolutionary War, and wa ...

furniture. When the company responded with a poison pill, they sued, and prevailed in court. They later ended the bid after five months with a profit of $60 million. In 1992, the AM side of WGMS was sold off to the Rales brothers who converted the music station into the first frequency for

WTEM WTEM (980 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial Sports radio, sports radio station licensed to serve Washington, D.C. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station services the Washington metropolitan area as the flagship station of the Washington Wizards ...

, the first full-time sports talk radio station in the

Washington metropolitan area The Washington metropolitan area, also referred to as the National Capital Region, Greater Washington, or locally as the DMV (short for Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia), is the metropolitan area comprising Washing ...

. He and his brother founded

Colfax Corporation Enovis Corporation is a medical technology company with a focus in orthopedics. The company was founded by brothers Mitchell Rales, Mitchell and Steven Rales as the Colfax Corporation in 1995. Enovis is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and i ...

in 1995, an industrial pumps manufacturer based in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

. In 2008, Rales engineered the initial public offering of the company. Rales also owns a 20% stake in the

, a

(NBA) team.

Indian Paintbrush

Rales founded the film production company Indian Paintbrush in 2006. The company works frequently with filmmaker

, producing films such as ''

Moonrise Kingdom ''Moonrise Kingdom'' is a 2012 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson, written by Anderson and Roman Coppola, and starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, ...

'', ''

The Grand Budapest Hotel ''The Grand Budapest Hotel'' is a 2014 comedy-drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Wes Anderson. Ralph Fiennes leads a seventeen-actor ensemble cast as Monsieur Gustave H., famed concierge of a twentieth-century mountainside resort ...

'', and ''

Isle of Dogs The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England. It includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Haml ...

''. Rales has earned three

nominations for his work with Anderson, winning

for ''

'' (2023) at the

96th Academy Awards The 96th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the gala, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonl ...

. In May 2024, he acquired media distribution companies

and

Personal life

Rales was married to Christine Plank from 1983 to 2003. They have three children: Alexander, Gregory, and Stephanie.Find A Case: CHRISTINE P. RALES, APPELLANT v. STEVEN M. RALES, APPELLEE
September 28, 2006 He married Lalage Damerell in 2012, the mother of writer and former

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

officer Amaryllis Fox Kennedy. Rales was a major donor in the 2002 dedication of the Peeler Art Center at DePauw. , he held a net worth of $8.9 billion according to ''

''.

References

External links

Danaher profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rales, Steven 1951 births 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American Jews American billionaires American company founders American film producers American film production company founders American film studio executives American University alumni Businesspeople from Bethesda, Maryland Danaher Corporation people DePauw University alumni Golden Globe Award–winning producers Indiana Pacers owners Jewish American film people Living people Missing middle or first names Producers who won the Live Action Short Film Academy Award Walt Whitman High School (Maryland) alumni